I found an old friend on the net last week. And it's all thanks to you sandtank... yep, good old Johannes True, who's a good old chap (lol). What was it ... 15 years ago?! I had just moved to a new school, and I didn't know anyone. You know what it's like to be the new kid ... But Joey True was there... and so was Ayush, and Yang, and Sameer, and Rahul.. I became instant friends with Johannes- we were best friends for the next 5 years, when I left for back home, and so did Joey.

We have so much catching up to do. It's been fifteen years, and we have each gone different ways. But before all that, it's awesome to remember all the memories from 15 years ago. We chatted the other day, and remembered some of those good old memories... My stomach hurt from laughing so hard... Man, we were lunatics back then... hahahahah... So much for good old days...

Bi-hess

This is the lyrics to my favorite Iranian rap song "Bi Hess" by Zedbazi. I wrote it myself so some parts might be wrong (doubt it). Some people might find this lyrics offensive, the language is pretty coarse...

هر سال صد تا آهنگ مياد…
از همه جای دنيا
همه ميخونن
همه هم ميشنون
ولی فقط يه گروهه که وقتی ميخونه
تهران ميترکه... او ه ه ه
تهران
ز دبازی
عليرضا جی جی
سيجل

…
ام جی!
دختر خوب نکن بم نگاه
نه ما عين تو ايم و نه تو عين ما
من زدم تو خط جک و جنده ها
تا بيان و بگن امشبو زنده باد
کلّی بند و بساط
آره همون بنگ و موادی
که ديگه شده قند و نبات
همه شديم منگ و خراب
يهو گرم شد هوا تو هم شلوار تنگو در آر
نکنه ميخوای ببندمت با دستبند به تخت
نه- نری اصلاً از دستم يه وقت
خواسته هات هستن چه سخت
من خودم اينقد مستم که الان وصلم به تخت
پس منو شخصاً ببخش
تو که فقط نيستی بقيه هم هستن تو کف
بستن يه صف
هر وقت منو ميبينن
زود با يه سوت وا ميستن
انگار من داورم اونا فوتباليستن
ولی اونا دنبال اين توپا نيستن
دولو ميخوان
واسه همينم اين همه راه دورو ميان
ميمونن دورم
تا ديوونم کنن
ميدونم خودم
اينا ديوونم شدن
ميشينن بغلم
پس همه عملاً
دست ور نميدارن از سر کچلم (ای وای!)
نميخوام بزنم بهت ضد حال
خيلی رک و راست بگم فقط بت يه بار
فکر نکن حرفم دروغه وقتی بت ميگم خيلی سرم شلوغه
نگو حال نداری
منو قال نذاری
بيا بال در آريم
بريم بالا با هم
خرابتم خودتم خوب ميدونی
تويه شرايطه بد ما با هم خوب ميمونيم
هر جا برم، تو هستی پيشم
وقتی عادی ام يا تو مستی گيجم…
تو رو نميگم منظورم موزيکه
چون از روزی که رفتم توش ديگه مغزم گوزيده
دوست دارم از بس،
کاملا دادم عقلمو از دست
پس هر کس، داد با من دست
فهميد مهراد عجب آدم کس خلی هست
سعی نکن پس، ادا منو در آری، نه زاخار تو مثه من علاقشو نداری
نميخام بزنم من ضد حال بهت، يا دروغ بهت بگم يا که ادّعام بشه
فقط بهت ميگم که چه جوری …
تا که بدونی يه خورده بيشتر از من.
اسمم هيدنه …
خوب حفظ کنش، به خاطر خوب بسپرش
خوب حس کنش و حرف بيجا نزن،
آره داداش من اينجا اين کارتم
آره ديگه قدرت افتاده دست من
اومدم اينجا استاد رپ بشام
کس نگو بلا مييارم سرت
نزديکم نيا ميمالم درت
hidden

چرا بی حسم
هر چی راه ميام باز بت نميرسم
let’s go
امشب خيلی خل ام
که از دنيا هی ميخورم
شصت يک ميخورم
يا چون ری ميکنم
اين شکلی شدم
تويه دنيا جايی نديدم
يکی مثله خودم
زندگيمو بايد بگيرنو قصه کنن
ديگه هر چی پول داشتم رفت به باد
هر چی دختر باهام بود زد به چاک
همه برنامه هام يهو رفت به فاک
اگه بشينی بگردی پی رد پا
ميبينی هفته ها
يه سری شتک برام زير آب زدن
تا تونستن گرفتن ايراد ازم
ولی هنوزم آس پيک ايران منم
واسه همينم دخترا ميان دمم
امضاء ميخوان ازم
ولی داشی زندگی بالا پايين داره
تابستونت رفته حالا پاييز باته
کس خارش دودو بيار توپ بشيم
حالا کس خارش دودو بده دود بشيم (آره)
خيلی مونده راه، تا بخوايم که ما
آدم بشيم
واسه همينم وقتی که شب مياد، الک ميزنيم و ميريم بالا
...
سيجل که فقط تو رو ميخوايم، که فقط تو رو ميخوايم،
باشه برو مييام
chorus
دافا ميشنونو ميگن يه بار ديگه بذار
زنگ ميزنن موبايلم سه ثانيه يه بار
اجباريه انگار حرف زدن با اينا
ولی فقط واسه اين که بدم يه راه ديگه فشار
دنبالممو ميپرسن کوشی ويلسن؟
چون دوست دارنم بيشتر از کيف لويی ويتن
آهنگام هست تو همه مهمونيا و همه ماشينا يی که ميدن تو اتوبان صدر ويراژ
اما چيزی نميدونی
...
چارتا شنيدی و چار تا کردی لاش
آمار درست ما رو هر کی داشت
خايه کرد و صورتش شد رنگ زرد شاش
نگو حال نداری…
حالم دارم
اتفاقا
کل تهران آرزوشونه که مثه ما شن
رفته بودم فضا ولی برگشتم
هنوزم تو اين بازی به من ميگن سرلشکر
صد تا سربازه باهام
هيچکی هم تو کل اين بازی نداره قدرت اندازه ما
کسی شاخ نميشه پس واسه ما
وقتی اين همه آدم جلوم وايسادنو منم شدم دروازه بان
دليلشم واسه همه شماها بزارين دوباره بگم
بازيکن زياده ولی من شماره يکم
ويلسن!
chorus

خيلی وقت بود چيزی ننوشته بودم
اين يه ماه و اندی که گذشته سرم خيلی شلوغ بوده... شديداً مشغول آزمايش های مربوط به کار خودم شدم... کارای تي ای هم که حسابی اين ترمی وقت گير شده... عجب غلطی کردم که واسه دو تا درس تي ای شدم... تازه در کنارشم توترينگ آخر هفته...
ديگه وقت واسه سر خاروندن نميذاره
يادم نمياد آخرين روزی که هيچ کاری نداشتم بکنم کی بوده... يه روز که بشينم خونه حوصلم سر بره از بيکاری...
شايدم يه جورايی خوب باشه اينم...
از الان کم کم به فکر اينم که بعد از فوق چيکار ميخوام بکنم... کجا ميخوام برم...
ميبخشيد که اين پستم فوق العاده بچه مثبتی بود... چيکار کنم ديگه بچه مثبت شدم ديگه

تازه الان دارم از اين آهنگای پيانو نيو ايج هم گوش ميدم.. که ريلکس کنم بعد از روز طولانی... آخر کار بچه مثبتی ...

A thousand and one things to talk about.

1. Ahmad joon made the front cover of TIME magazine. Inside is a whole, detailed article on the attack strategies the US will have to use if there's to be a war with Iran. Everything is thought of. All is planned.

2. UN's general debate took place last week in New York. Iran's president had a lecture on the first day of the debate. UN has put the videos of the presidents and leaders of different countries' speeches on its website. You can watch the videos in the language the spokesperson was using, or, the English translated video. Iran's video had two links: English and ARABIC!

THE UN THINKS IRAN'S LANGUAGE IS ARABIC! I checked the website again today, and they have changed it from "Arabic" to "Original Language". Stop worrying about the ignorant civilians! Stick to the UN first!

3. I had a thousand and one things I wanted to talk about, but I'm running out of time here. School has started once again and I'm as busy as hell. But this time I'm trying to keep a balance between life and school, and I'm happy with it so far.

The stranger

The stranger was determined to show that his culture was worth more than all the labor of the men and women in the bar. He pointed to a print hanging on the wall:

“Do you know what that is? It’s one of the most famous paintings in the world: The Last Supper, painted by Leonardo da Vinci.”

“It can’t be as famous as all that,” said the hotel landlady. “It was very cheap.”

“That’s only a reproduction: the original is in a church a long, long way from here. But there’s a story about this picture you might like to hear.”

Everyone nodded.

“When he was creating this picture, Leonardo da Vinci encountered a serious problem: he had to depict Good -in the person of Jesus- and Evil –in the figure of Judas, the friend who resolves to betray him during the meal. He stopped work on the painting until he could find hid ideal models.

“One day, when he was listening to a choir, he saw in one of the boys the perfect image of Christ. He invited him to his studio and made sketches and studies of his face.

“Three years went by. The Last Supper was almost complete, but Leonardo had still not found the perfect model for Judas. The cardinal responsible for the church started to put pressure on him to finish the mural.


After many days spent vainly searching, the artist came across a prematurely aged youth, in rags and lying drunk in the gutter. With some difficulty, he persuaded hid assistants to bring the fellow directly to the church, since there was no time left to make sketches.

“The beggar was taken there, not quite understanding what was going on. He was propped up slightly, opened his eyes and saw the picture before him. With a mixture of horror and sadness he said:

“I’ve seen that picture before!”

“When?” asked an astonished Leonardo.

“ ‘Three years ago, before I lost everything I had, at a time when I used to sing in a choir and my life was full of dreams. The artist asked me to pose as the model for the face of Jesus.’ ”

There was a long pause.

“So you see, Good and Evil have the same face; it all depends on when they cross the path of each individual human being,”

He got up, made his excuses, saying he was tired, and went up to his room. Everyone paid what they owed and slowly left the bar.

in the middle of the night, i was thinking of a blog

You wake up in the middle of the night... you need to go to the bathroom... while you're in the bathroom, suddenly an inspiring moment takes place, and you come up with an awsome idea, for a blog. You say to yourself, I better write this down now, so I won't forget in the morning. A part of you says that something this strong will never be forgotten, so why go throuth the trouble of turning on the lights and getting a pen and paper and not be able to go back to sleep afterwards? you'll remember it... Now go back to bed. So you do.

Funny you remember this much in the morning. You don't remember anything else...

Sandtank

I was surprised looking at the archives of Sandtank today... Sandtank, you're almost SIX months old! happy half-anniversary! Man, I never thought I could keep up a blog for six months... actually I never thought I could keep up anything for six months...

During the past six months what I put in my blog has changed quite a lot. I started off with mostly writing my feelings and thoughts, in English. After some time, I started adding some Persian posts to here and there, and Sandtank became kinda bi-lingual (put that in your resume, Sandtank. It's gonna earn you some extra points). For me it was really difficult to type in Farsi, so I gave it up and went back to English.

After some time, I came up with the idea of writing posts in Farsi, Scanning and uploading scanned images. This way, I'd practice my Farsi writing every now and then, along with posting in Farsi (having ur cake and eating it too).

I don't have too many viewers here, so to you dear reader, who's reading this very line right now, I appreciate your time and I hope you liked my posts. I don't like to turn my blog into a whorehouse and add a dozen links to other weblogs in order to have them add me to their lists. I prefer if only people I know read what I write.

So, all the best to you sandtank, I am looking forward to celebrating your sixth anniversary!

"To the one who understood her task and her purpose.
To the one who looked at the road ahead, and understood that it was a difficult journey.

To the one who did not make light of those difficulties,
but, on the contrary, made them manifest and visible.

To the one who makes the lonely feel they are not alone,
who satisfies those who hunger and thirst for justice, who makes the oppressor feel as bad as the oppressed.

To the one who always keeps her door open,
her ears listening, her hands working, her feet walking.

To the one who embodies the verses of another Persian poet,
Hafez, when he says: Not even seven thousand years of joy are worth seven days of sadness.

To the one who is here tonight, may she be one with all of us,
may her example multiply, may she still have difficult days ahead,
so that she can do whatever she needs to do, so that the next generations will not have to strive
for what has already been accomplished.

And may she walk slowly,
because her peace is the peace of change,
and change, real change, always takes time."

(Message from Paulo Coelho to honour Shirin Ebadi at the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony, Oslo, December 11th 2003).

No don't get me wrong here. I'm not a Shirin Ebadi fan. I just thought it's interesting to see Coelho writing this message to praise her work. The way he has put the words together is beautiful.